antling of the State, whose primary justification is, precisely,nexternal defense.nThe American bishops offer several alternatives: nonresistancento the attacker combined with noncooperation withnhim, now the occupier of the national territory. Thisnsounds like a child’s vagaries in the world of adults, for thenoccupier they and we have in mind has means to compeln”cooperation” in chains and gulags. Nor would the enemynhave even a minimum of grudging respect, as it had fornHungarians who had risen up, arms in hand, in sacrifice forntheir nation. The American bishops not only oppose reasonnand dignity, they recommend cowardice as a view of thennew historical epoch. Or, worse, they seek to formulatenimpossible—and immoral—amalgams, as Cardinal Bernardin’sningenious proposition that “life-issues”—abortion,nwar, capital punishment—should be treated as one “package.”nSince wars are not likely to go out of fashion this sidenof Christ’s Second Coming, Bernardin’s message is to keepnabortions forever on the book.nffnEssential Reading on War and Peace’n—horn the French & German Bishopsn;ni_ OUT OF Ju.sTKr. Vrifurrnnn5 JP-‘il I*»Koni MernJ .-1 A- Vtu Ltitam Biiiapin; WINNING I-HL PEM,tn•4nij Jiwit PMoril Lcuern• ofriieFT^IlBa’MptnJAHfiV lauil.’iinPermanent soft-cover $3.95n(10 or more copies $2.95}n(100 or more $1.95)nThis important volume, Out of Justice, Peace andnWinning the Peace, contains the complete text ofnboth the Joint Pastoral Letters of the West GermannBishops and of the French Bishops on war andnpeace. Edited and with an introduction by, Fr.nJames Schall, S.J., and an appendix by BasilnCardinal Hume of England, these texts are essentialnfor a thorough discussion on this vital issue.n”Extraordinarily lucid and persuasive pastoralnletters on war and peace. The bishops have givennus remarkably sane statements on nuclear deterrencenand its positive relation to keeping peace.”n— James V. Schall, S.J.n”The first time since Pope Pius XII that a bodynof the Catholic Church has officially stated thatnCommunism is intrinsically perverse.”n— National Reviewn”These documents are distinguished by theirnwisdom and judgement in regard to the morality ofndefending national and individual rights. Thoseninterested in the continuing dialogue about thenmorality of deterrence should consider thesendocuments as absolutely essential reading.”n— Archbishop Philip Hannan,nNew Orleans, La.nTWO OTHER IMPORTANT BOOKS ON SOCIAL ISSUES:n• The Social Teaching of Vatican II, by Rodger Charles, S.J.nEngland’s foremost Catholic scholar on the Church’s social teachings gives us the mostncomprehensive and definitive work on this topic to date. This masterpiece is the fruit ofntwenty years of study and research. Hardcover, 600 pages $30.00n• Liberation Theology, by James V, Schall, S.J.nDrawing on important ecclesiastical documents, as well as contemporary articles fromnexperts in the U.S. and abroad, Fr. Schall, an authority on the social issues, gives anthorough and concise treatment of this controversial subject. Permanent soft’ $12.95nigriOCCiCiS p R e S S P.O. BOX18990 San Francisco, CA 94118nCOPIES TITLE AMOUNTnNamenStreetnCity, State. ZIPnR Please include $1.00 for postage and handling. (Calif, residents please add ii’/i’Jc sales tax.)n241 CHRONICLES OF CULTUREnnnIn sum, the United States bishops line up on the side ofnpacifism, which is itself a militant, aggressive, quasimilitarynoperation. The “pacifist” label has nothing to donwith it; it is not the first time in this century that a reassuringnlabel covers an evil merchandise. The peace that thenChurch preaches is a conversion of the heart. Before thatncan happen, the human condition imposes its servitudes.nHistory, in fact, has never known a peace based onnagreement and final reconciliation, only such a peace thatnwas in the victor’s interest, although the defeated alsongained some satisfaction. There was the pax Romana, thenSpanish peace in South America, the “peaceful” century innEurope, from 1815 to 1914, paid for by colonial people,nand then the post-1945 “peace,” as bloody and violentnthrough its local wars as any major conflict ever. Thenbishops, engaging in political rhetoric instead of moralnexhortation, have turned into peace-activists; yet they speaknin a moral vacuum.nThe world, for all its imperfections, is at least morenconcrete than the bishops’ untutored imaginings. Basically,nwars are not mere clashes of arms. They are ideologicalnconflicts between sets of definitions. The victor imposes notnonly his material conditions, but also, more importantly,nhis monopoly of meanings. Hitler and Chamberlain obviouslyndefined “peace” differently, and the question in 1939nwas whose definition would prevail. We are instructed bynthe various pacifist schools of thought that “peace is innmankind’s rational interest”; but even if we grant that thenrational prevails over the irrational, who defines “rational”nor “interest”? Thus what appears to A as rational, isninterpreted by B as cowardly, an invitation to aggression.nWhile the Church teaches the conversion of hearts, anprocess to end with history itself (and even then incompletely,nsince there will remain the redeemed and the damned),nthe pacifists—and the American bishops—insist that thisnbe done here and now, with the help of technologicalndismantling of existing arsenals. Even if this were a possibility,nwhere is the assurance that tomorrow the blackness ofnthe warring heart does not again prevail—and the militaryntechnology reactivated? Place all weapons at the disposal ofnthe United Nations? But this organization too is human,nand the only difference would be that wars would henceforthnbe called “insurrections against a World-State” thatnwould be by definition, but only by definition, peaceful.nThe most that can be hoped for is what is promised in thenpermanent teaching of the Church: temporary and limitednpeace periods, guaranteed by the self-interest of sovereignnStates. This perspective is unacceptably modest for thenenthusiasts, both within and without the Church, whonforget that in feudal times the Church, depositor of meanings,ncould impose the treuga Dei, a temporary and limitednpeace, not more. At the time, the “balance of terror” existednbetween the armor of knights, a kind of mutual deterrence.nYet, no permanent peace resulted, mankind survived andnwent on devising new weapons: better siege machines, morencombat-ready standing armies, tanks, bomber planes . . .nthe Bomb. Not a lovely enumeration, but apparently withinnthe scope of man under God’s providence. ccn